Monday, November 15, 2010

Both Billboard and the WSJ are predicting that Apple's big announcement tomorrow will be that the Beatles are finally coming to iTunes.

Billboard says that after a day of phone calls, e-mails and cryptic messages, they are sticking their neck out and saying this is what we're going to hear tomorrow.

For starters, the sources in the past that quashed any rumors of an impending Beatles launch are today very quiet, and strangely so. Next is the wording of the teaser on Apple's website. The first line is, "Tomorrow is just another day." As noted earlier, "Another Day" is a Paul McCartney song released on his solo record "Ram," but written during the Beatles' "Let it Be" sessions.

Also, for those into hunting for more clues, Apple's teaser page features four clocks, each with the arms in different positions, (denoting the time of the announcement in California, New York, London and Tokyo time zones). Pretty unnecessary unless you compare it to the cover of the Beatles' "Help!" album, featuring all four members side by side with their arms also in different positions.

The WSJ says the deal resulted from talks that were taking place as recently as last week among executives of Apple, representatives of the Beatles and their record label, EMI Group Ltd,, according to these people. These people cautioned that Apple could change plans at the last minute.

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Apple plans to launch iAds in Europe and will announce the first brands to use the service later this week, according to a Financial Times report.

The report indicates that despite enormous potential for the iAds service, enthusiasm has waned amid high prices for ads, a slow production process and client withdrawals.

Apple has twice delayed iAd’s European launch in recent weeks, and in some cases been prepared to discuss running campaigns for less than its $1m minimum spend in order to attract good names as advertisers.

"They are expensive and a pain to deal with," said one media agency’s digital chief.

"Apple is in a weaker position than you’d think," said another agency’s digital leader.

"Apple is still figuring out how to sell advertising," said one senior marketing group executive. "You don’t just become a sell-side media company overnight. The infrastructure is missing at Apple right now."

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Apple has added an unannounced feature to iTunes 10.1 which lets you stream your iPhoto videos to the Apple TV.

Previously iPhoto users were only able to stream photos via Home Sharing; however, 9to5Mac notes that if you head to the share menu on the iTunes menu bar, then click share photos, you now have the option to include video.

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Peter Kafka from AllThingsD believes it's unlikely that Music Subscriptions or Streaming will be announced by Apple tomorrow.

Earlier today Apple used its entire homepage to say that "Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget. Check back here tomorrow for an exciting announcement from iTunes."

Many hope that tomorrow will move iTunes into the cloud; however, Kafka's industry sources put a damper on that possibility.

The music industry sources I’ve talked to so far today don’t know of any new deals between Apple and the big music labels. So that would rule out a new subscription service, which would definitely require a new rights deal.

And that also makes it very unlikely that Apple does the next best thing: Letting users upload their iTunes catalog to the cloud, and letting them access it anywhere they want.

Let us know what you think it might be in the comments...

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